Britain's biggest bookmaker Ladbrokes today reported full-year operating profit slightly ahead of market expectations, but said trading in the current year had been affected by race cancellations.
Ladbrokes, which has over 2,600 betting shops including 208 in the Republic, said its operating profit, excluding bets by high stakes gamblers, increased by 0.9% to £243.8m sterling in the year ending December 2008. That was just ahead of the market consensus of £240m.
Gross win - total bets minus payouts - increased by 11.1% during the year to £1.14 billion, excluding bets by high stakes gamblers.
'High rollers', who place five figure sums on individual bets, contributed £80.1m to operating profit during the year.
Ladbrokes said the first six weeks of 2009 had been affected by bad weather-related cancellations. A total of 58 cancellations were reported so far this year, compared to 33 the same time last year.
Gross win since the year end, excluding high rollers, was 1% up on the previous year.
Breaking down the figures, Ladbrokes said that operating profits in its Irish shops rose by 21% to £24.4m sterling from £20.1m in 2006. Gross wins jumped by over 48% to £91.5m from £61.8m, reflecting the benefit of recent acquisitions and favourable exchange rates.
However, it said that like-for-like constant currency gross win fell by 8.8%, reflecting the weak Irish economic conditions and a greater reliance on Irish horseracing which saw 44 meetings abandoned last year compared to just 13 in 2007.
Ladbrokes added that operating costs in Ireland rose by over 59% to £58.8m mainly due to the increase in shop numbers and currency appreciation. It add that management will continue to look at cost saving initiatives in 2009 and plans to introduce the Oddson! loyalty card scheme in the first half of the year.
Ladbrokes is now the largest bookie chain in the North after the acquisition of the 54 shop Eastwood chain last February, six McCartan shops last April and two new licences. Gross win grew by 21.3% in the North last year.
Ladbrokes said it was maintaining its final dividend at 9.05 pence, making a total dividend for the year of 14.15 pence.
